


It's the Holiday Season (Whoop-de-doo)

by kafuka



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Party, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 18:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12989961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kafuka/pseuds/kafuka
Summary: Lance and Hunk are planning something. Keith is suspicious and sarcastic. Somehow, it all ends in a Christmas party with hidden mistletoe.





	It's the Holiday Season (Whoop-de-doo)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [codeArgentum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/codeArgentum/gifts).



> A Christmas gift for my bestie. Enjoy, Lennifer. <3
> 
> Hoobliejopps was created by my boyfriend, because blah, blah, blah, crazy words, mustache!

If fingers were going to be pointed, Keith thought, it was really Lance and Hunk who started it. The giggling in corners, the gathering of materials, the sudden hush that fell over their conversations when someone else entered the room. Even Coran noticed, and Keith always thought of him as the oblivious but well-meaning uncle of Voltron. 

But it was Pidge who voiced concern first.

Hunk and Lance had walked into the lounge, took one look at Pidge, Keith and Shiro on the couch, and turned right around and ran out again, giggling the whole time.

“Okay,” Pidge said, slamming her laptop closed, “WHAT are they up to?”

Shrio started, popping awake from the half-nap he had been taking. “What are who up to?” He slurred, wiping at his eyes. 

“Lance and Hunk!” Keith said, throwing down the knife he had been polishing. “They’re sneaking around and being weird!”

Shiro blinked at him.

“Weirder than usual!” Keith corrected and sat back with a huff.

Pidge stood up and tucked her computer under her arm. “I’m going to find out.” She said. “If you need me, I’ll be in the vents.” And she left the room.

Five minutes later, Keith had returned to his knife and Shiro had dozed off again. Directly above them, Keith could hear muffled banging and some creative cursing. He silently wished Pidge good luck.

***

After that, Keith had to lay some blame on Pidge too. Looking back, he should have known she’d get sucked into it too. But at least the cat was out of the proverbial bag now.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS,” Lance bellowed, entering the bridge, a large red bag in slung over his shoulder. Hunk and Pidge followed, arms full of boxes.

“Oh God,” Keith said, looking up from the starmap he and Shiro were both examining.

“Bless you!” Allura said, turning from her post in the middle of the room. “That was a sneeze, right?”

“Nope!” Lance said, dropping his bag with more force than truly necessary. “It’s a holiday! By my and Hunk’s calculations” -- Keith was sure he’d never rolled his eyes harder in his life -- “it’s Christmastime on earth! It’s the time of the year when everyone takes time off, gives each other presents, and parties until they can’t no more.” He was digging around in the bag and pulled out a part of reindeer antlers, which he popped on his head.

Hunk snorted from where he kneeled on the ground, pulling what looked like decorations out of one of the boxes he carried in. “And, you know, spending time with their families and friends they care about. And of course, eating delicious food.” He sat back and started detangling a string of what looked like homemade Christmas lights. “How did these already get tangled? I just finished making them.”

“Oh, we have something like that on Altea as well!” Allura said, clapping her hands together delightedly. “It’s called Hoobliejopps!”

“Hooblie-what?” Pidge asked. She was sitting next to Hunk, attaching lengths of garland to various sized wreaths.

“Hoobliejopps!” Coran said, joining the decorating committee. “Families get together and celebrate the previous deca-phoeb with music and food! Children go door to door collecting ice--”

“What? How do you collect ice?” Pidge asked.

“Well, that’s part of the fun now, isn’t it?” Coran said and started on a long diatribe about the various ways Altean children procured ice from their neighbors on Hobbliejopps Eve.

Shiro stood up and walked past Keith over to where Christmas decorations were starting to pile up. He rummaged around in some of the boxes and pulled out what looked like a small tree made of green metal. “Who made this?” He asked.

“Me and Pidge,” Hunk said digging into the same box and handing Shiro a tray of tiny ornaments. “That’s for anybody’s control station. There’s one for everybody and here’s the decorations.”

Keith stood a couple feet behind Shiro, surveying the chaos. At least now he knew what the secrecy had been about. He watched as Coran and Allura started helping too, asking questions about various decorations and what they were for. Lance was happily explaining. 

“And this…” Lance said, rummaging around in his bag. “Is… mistletoe!” He held up the plant triumphantly. 

Keith groaned, but Shiro looked up in surprise. “Mistletoe? Where did you get that?”

“Well, it’s not really mistletoe,” Pidge said. “I called the Olkari and they helped me genetically engineer a plant very similar-looking to it. We could only grow one on such short notice, but Lance insisted.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you can guess why.”

Shiro snorted. “That I can.” He turned and smiled at Keith. “Want to help me decorate the tiny trees for everyone’s control stations?”

Keith glanced at Lance, who was miming kissing under the mistletoe, much to Allura’s disgust and Coran’s amusement. “Yes. Anything to get me away from that.”

***

After the decorations were applied to every visible surface on the bridge, in the lounge, and along the hallways that connected the two, Lance announced there would be a party the next night.

“Pidge and I will take care of the music, Hunk will provide the food, and everyone else has a full day to get gifts together. I accept skincare products and physical affection.” He winked at Allura and she pretended not to notice, though Keith caught her eyelid twitch.

Lance bid everyone goodnight, grabbed Hunk and Pidge, and took off. Allura and Coran said goodnight as well and left the bridge, arguing the finer points of Hoobliejopps tradition. 

Shiro turned to Keith as they left. “That was exciting.”

Keith shook his head and smiled. “Yeah, but it wasn’t really what I was expecting to find out they were up to.”

Shiro grinned. “Me either, but I can’t say I mind.”

“I guess I can live with a Christmas party.” Keith headed toward the door and Shiro followed. “But I am going to lose it if Lance follows Allura around with that fake mistletoe all night.”

Shiro sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on him. Maybe we can get it away from him and hide it?”

Keith grinned. “Okay, that would definitely make this the best Christmas ever.”

***

Unfortunately, Lance arrived at the party mistletoe-less. 

When Keith confronted him about it, Lance just shrugged. “I’m saving it for the right time” was all he said before slipping away to help Pidge set up her makeshift DJ booth.

“Do you trust that?” Shiro asked, stepping up beside Keith.

“Not in the least,” Keith said. Shiro handed him a drink and Keith took a sip from it. “Is this cocoa?”

“You don’t like it?” Shiro asked.

“No, it’s great!” Keith said, surprised, and took another sip. “Where did the cocoa come from?”

Shiro shrugged. “More of Pidge’s wizardry.”

Keith made an affirmative noise. “Anyway, we should still keep an eye on Lance. Agreed?”

Shiro nodded. “Agreed.”

Lance finished helping Pidge set up her booth, and Allura, Coran, and Hunk wheeled in the food. Before long, Pidge’s computer was blasting digitally rewritten versions of Christmas music, everyone had plates piled high with approximations of ham, stuffing, and gingerbread cookies, and presents were being exchanged. 

Allura and Coran had found some traditional Hoobliejopps robes and passed them out the paladins. They mostly consisted of sparkly capes with hoods that took on an ice-like sheen when they hit the light correctly. “These are what Altean children wear when collecting ice on Hoobliejopps Eve!” Coran announced, draping one around his his own shoulders. “Adults wear them too, when they hand out the ice!”

“Can you explain to me how this ice exchange works, again?” Pidge asked, examining the robe closely.

“Certainly, number four! You see, when children have been very good all year, their parents let them out of Hoobliejopps Eve wearing the traditional robes, and…”

Keith let his robe gently slide of off his shoulders and puddle onto the couch behind him. He decided he’d hang it up in his closet later. Much later.

Lanced passed out small bottles of what he called homemade sleep masks, but mostly looked like beige food goo. He admitted the goo and some of Kalternecker’s milk were the two main ingredients, but swore up and down it was great for your skin. Keith decided he would conveniently lose his in a garbage chute.

Pidge handed out copies of the program she used to recreate the Christmas carols she was playing. “It’s kind of like a digital songwriting program. I used samples from the music I had on my laptop and encoded each sound and note so they can be built on top of one another to write music. I modified it so it can be installed on our lions so we can listen to music on them.” She was pretty proud and even Keith had to admit he liked the idea of being able to recreate the music he hadn’t been able to listen since they left earth.

Hunk had made everyone a batch of special Christmas cookies. Each were frosted in their signature color and were made in shapes of things they liked. Everyone’s included lion-shaped cookies. Keith’s also had knives and frowny faces. And he would have been mad about that if they hadn’t tasted so good.

Shiro and Keith had sat up the night before trying to think of something to give the others and had come up with homemade Christmas cards. They made each one together, Keith drawing pictures on the front and Shiro writing little inspirational messages on the inside. Keith tried to draw something that related to each person: Hunk’s card had a holiday dinner on it; Pidge’s was the metal ornaments she’d made; Lance’s card had Kalternecker with a wreath around her neck; Allura’s had the mice wearing Christmas clothes and pretending to be carollers; and Coran’s tried to depict the confusing practice of Hoobliejopps Eve ice collecting, though both Keith and Shiro couldn’t quite make sense of it and just settled on a picture of a young Coran holding a block of ice. Everyone liked the cards, but Coran was especially delighted with his.

“I didn’t know you could draw, mullet,” Lance said, admiring the picture of Kalternecker.

Keith shrugged. “It’s a hobby.”

The party carried on. Pidge and Hunk tried teaching Coran and Allura the words to some Christmas carols, but whenever they reached a word they didn’t understand, they inquired about it so long that the song would end. They were especially confused about “wassailing,” and Pidge and Hunk didn’t quite seem to know what it meant either.

Shiro and Keith kept an eye on Lance the entire night, but he failed to ever produce the mistletoe. At one point they assumed he must have hung it somewhere and tried to subtly find it, only to come up empty. Eventually, they retired to the couch with more cocoa.

“I’m still suspicious,” Keith said, glancing in Lance’s direction. He was chatting up Allura who looked only mildly irritated. Apparently the Christmas spirit could help loosen up even the most irritated of princesses.

Shiro played with the string of lights someone had wound around his neck. “If Lance is going to make a move, at least he’s being patient. Just relax for now. We deserve a break now and again.”

“I guess…” Keith said, taking a sip of cocoa. “This is really good.”

“Right?” Shiro said, tipping his head back to rest it on the top of the couch. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Keith asked and looked up. High above them, someone had hastily affixed the mistletoe on a long string. It was hidden among the various garlands that criss-crossed the room. No wonder they’d missed it on their first scan of the room.

Keith looked over at Lance, who was still chatting with Allura. Coran and Pidge were still trying to pick apart the etymology of “wassail” as Hunk listened in. 

“Oh.”

He glanced back at Shiro, who’s cheeks had gone a little red, but he was smiling as he sat up straighter. “Eh, why not? Holiday spirit, right?”

Keith felt his face flush and he looked down into his cocoa. He slid it onto the floor and looked back to Shiro. “I.. I guess.”

Shiro leaned forward and Keith tilted his face up, letting his eyes slip closed. Shiro pressed his mouth to Keith’s gently, and Keith felt Shiro’s tongue brush against his lower lip. Feeling suddenly bold and perhaps a little stupid, Keith reached up and slid his hand into Shiro’s hair. He let his mouth fall open as he pulled Shiro’s face closer to his, letting Shiro’s tongue explore further. Shiro pressed forward and placed a hand on Keith’s cheek, his thumb gently tracing over his cheekbone.

“Well, Princess, if you wouldn’t mind joining me on the couch, I can-- HOLY QUIZNAK.”

Lance’s exclamation brought the party to a halt, and every pair of eyes turned to Shiro and Keith. They froze and then slowly moved apart, looking around at everyone else.

“Uh,” Keith said dumbly, his cheeks getting -- somehow -- redder.

“We, uh,” Shiro sputtered, “we found where Lance hid the mistletoe?”

There was dead silence for a good thirty seconds before Hunk and Pidge bursted out laughing and Lance’s face fell. 

“Oh man, you guys ruined it! My plan was perfect and you had to go and out where I hid the stupid plant!” Lance slapped a hand over his face dramatically and stalked away. 

Hunk and Pidge continued to giggle, and Coran joined in. Allura gave Keith and Shiro a bemused smile. She mouthed “thank you,” gave an awkward thumbs up, and walked away. 

Keith groaned and hid his face in his hands. Shiro chuckled. “Uh, Merry Christmas, Keith?”

“Don’t say this was your gift,” Keith mumbled from behind his hands.

Shiro smiled. “Didn’t like it?”

“Did you plan this?” Keith asked, peeking out from behind his fingers.

“Nnnnooooo?” Shiro said, clearly lying. Keith made to leave, but Shiro grabbed his arm and pulled him back onto the couch. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to happen like that. I just… got the idea when Lance pulled the mistletoe out and thought you might… not be... _completely_ averse to it?”

Keith glanced to the side. “I… I’m not, but… Did you really have to do it _at the party_?”

“Well, that’s when Lance said we should exchange gifts, so…”

Keith rolled his eyes but smiled. “I guess you’re not getting your gift then.”

Shiro smiled, “Oh no? What was it?”

“A punch in the head.”

Shiro laughed. “Well, that’s okay, you can keep it then.”

Keith looked at his hands, considering for a moment. “I’ll give you a better gift,” he said, earnestly, catching Shiro’s eyes when he looked up. “But later. When we’re alone.”

Shiro smiled and placed a hand over Keith’s. “Can’t wait.”


End file.
